1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for producing documents composed of single sheets by means of an electrographic printing device which prints strip-like recording media.
2. Description of the Related Art
Documents, such as brochures, insurance certificates, etc., which are produced by means of electrographic, magnetographic or other non-impact printing devices, are preferably compiled from single sheets of differently colored or differently preprinted papers or of different basis weights (for example, paper weights).
Single-sheet printers having various (for example, 4) input compartments are employed for these instances of use. The documents can therefore be printed in the correct sequence by an appropriate choice of the input compartments.
Single-sheet printers necessitate an increased technical outlay for paper handling and printing. Moreover, the transport of single sheets is susceptible to faults. Furthermore, only paper weights and formats within a narrow range can be used.
Although it is known to couple electrographic printers for processing continuous paper to a separating device (such as a cutting device) and thereby to separate the printed-on print pages according to jobs, nevertheless only one format or one specific paper weight can ever be used in this case. Furthermore, in general, the increasing sequence during the printing operation with continuous paper is difficult to verify. Different paper weights and formats must subsequently be additionally fed into the printer in a separate work process.
European Patent Document EP-A1-0,553,870 discloses a document printing appliance which contains, as a central printing unit, an electrographic single-sheet printing device capable of operating in simplex and duplex mode. The single-sheet printing device is preceded by a paper feed device having an integrated cutting device, via which web paper is cut to format and fed to the printing unit. For the separate feed of precut single sheets, the paper feed device can additionally contain a single-sheet feed. In a paper post-processing unit, the printed single sheets are combined to. form a document.